


Another heart that's fading in the light

by lanyon



Series: Bad Boy Boogie [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 08:32:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5368583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanyon/pseuds/lanyon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Hey, Jack. You ever think we got lucky with our families?</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another heart that's fading in the light

**Author's Note:**

> +Title from the Killers

In Winnipeg, when Kent’s leaving the locker room with Jeff, he can see that Charbo’s standing in the long corridor, talking to some people. It’s not Charbo’s mom and sister; Kent can recognise them now. This is an elderly woman, who’s tiny and looks about a thousand years old, and three kids. They’re all boys and the tallest has a buzzcut while the smaller ones have curly hair and look like —

“Jeff,” he murmurs.

“Got it.” Jeff veers away and falls into step with Desi and Kent walks over to Charbo, who looks cornered by these people. 

“Hey, Gabriel,” he says, and it’s a concerted effort not to say ‘kid’ or even Charbo. “Bus is leaving for the hotel soon. You coming or —?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah.” Charbo pushes off from the wall. “Sorry, Kent. This is my grandma, Eloise, and my half-brothers?” He gestures at them. “Max, Zach and Logan.” 

Kent shakes hands with them all. Charbo’s grandmother looks tired, mostly, and the three boys look starstruck. He claps Charbo on the shoulder. “Sorry to take him away from you all. It was good of you to come out to see him.”

Without waiting for a response, Kent guides Charbo away.

“Kid, what was that?” he asks, quietly, even as Charbo twists around to look at his family.

“I —” Charbo swallows. “I’ve never met them before. My half-brothers. Dad never—”

“Oh,” says Kent and he can’t think what else to say as he guides Charbo to the bus and deposits him in his usual seat next to Beastly, who immediately offers Charbo one of his earbuds so he can join him in watching whatever series he’s currently addicted to. 

Kent lowers himself into the seat next to Jeff and he shrugs. “Family issues, I guess?” he says. 

He takes out his phone and turns it over. There are plenty of messages, from his parents and the girls, from Addison and from his cat-sitter (apparently Kit is proud of Kent’s performance tonight). 

_Hey, Jack. You ever think we got lucky with our families?_

♠

Charbo lets himself into his hotel room. His hands are shaking slightly. When he was little, he used to imagine his dad coming back and telling them all it had been a mistake, except he’d already gotten his girlfriend pregnant when he left Gabriel’s mom (and Gabriel and Aurelie, too).

When it came down to it, though, his dad wasn’t brave enough to face Gabriel and Gabriel doesn’t even know the little old lady who says she’s his grandma. She sent him birthday cards, till he was about eleven. Gabriel’s mom always made him and Aurelie send her birthday cards and Christmas cards, though. Gabriel still doesn’t really understand why. 

He goes to dump his bag on the far bed except it’s occupied. 

“Parse?” 

Parse shrugs. “Figured you could do with some civilised company tonight. We all know how much Henrikson snores. He’s in with Kivs and Desi gets a room to himself tonight so he can do, like, goalie shit.”

Gabriel feels like the ground is subsiding beneath his feet and he sinks down on the bed nearer to him. 

“We’ll order in some food, put on Gamecenter and, like, I don’t know. Bond? Like? I don’t really know what to say because my family are pretty fucking amazing and I know your family that matters are amazing too but you can’t keep all the badness out, you know?” Parse looks more serious than Gabriel has ever seen him. “But you can’t keep it all inside either. That way lies madness.”

“Parse,” says Gabriel again. 

“Okay, kid. Don’t make it weird. You’re my team, you know. I don’t just mean in the homosexual sense. I’m your captain.” Kent frowns. “Again, not in the homosexual sense. Look. You’re the rookie. You’re an Ace.”

“Thank you,” says Gabriel, finally. “Just. Yeah. Thanks.” He offers Parse a smile. “You can go back to being an asshole, now. I won’t tell anyone that you’re a good guy.” 

Sometimes, Gabriel thinks that it might be the worst-kept secret in the NHL: Kent Parson? Sometimes he cares.

♠

 **Las Vegas Aces** @lasvegasaces • 15m  
happy birthday @gcharb69! 

**Kent Parson** @kentparson • 10m  
score a goal tonight kid  & we may keep u RT @lasvegasaces happy birthday @gcharb69! 

♠

They play these segments on the jumbotron at the Battledrome, when they list the lineup before the game. Gabriel feels vaguely embarrassed when he sees his; he’s never quite been able to shake the feeling that all of this is desperately temporary and he’ll be archive footage before he knows it. Maybe a pub quiz question, _Who was the rookie called up when Bogdan Zarubin was injured in the 2011-12 NHL season?_. ( _What ever happened to him?_ )

In each segment, the player skates towards the camera at speed before pulling up and looking into the camera. Obviously, Parse looks like a model when he does it and Bash and Beastly look terrifying and even Jeff manages to pull off a certain amount of gravitas but Gabriel? Gabriel couldn’t help laughing at the absurdity of it and the director was charmed and that’s the cut they kept. 

Barty tells him it’s intimidating. Everyone knows shit’s gonna get real when Gabriel smiles.

“It’s — you know something we don’t. Charbo will fuck guys up and smile.”

That makes Gabriel laugh and Bash, who’s skating past, falls over. 

“Shit, what’s happening?” he asks, using Barty to haul himself to his feet. “Why’s Charbo laughing? Who’s gonna get it?”

Gabriel shakes his head. “You guys —”

“Best teammates ever, right, birthday boy?” Barty slings an arm around Gabriel’s shoulders. “C’mon, smile at camera some more. Wave at Mom.” Barty waggles his fingers at the nearest camera man and it’s up on the jumbotron and then warm-ups are over. 

♠

Charbo scores, on the power play and the reception he gets is pretty sweet. Kent slams into him, followed by Jeff, and it would knock a lesser man over but Kent’s beginning to learn that Charbo’s not a lesser man, even if he’s the shortest man on the ice tonight. 

(Kent always claims to be taller but Sasha says that it depends on their hairstyles which is laughable; it’s not like Kent has ever had any control over what his hair does.)

“Happy birthday, kid!” he shouts into Charbo’s ear, over the roar of the crowd and Charbo grins around his mouthguard and Kent feels pretty fucking proud of his team right now. It’s been a shitty game, with shitty calls and Dima went off, injured in the second period, but the Aces are winning and it’s starting to look like it’ll be harder to miss out on the playoffs than not. “I guess we’re keeping you!”

♠

Gabriel’s mom and sister are waiting after the game. It’s not too late so Gabriel figures that they’re gonna go for dinner together somewhere and then Gabriel can take them back to their hotel. His apartment isn’t that nice but he doesn’t really see the point of staying anywhere too nice (he doesn’t want to get too attached). 

“Hello, Mrs Charbonneau. Aurelie. It’s good to see you.”

Gabriel turns around and Parse is behind him, and being polite, and apparently recognises Gabriel’s family. Maybe it’s part of being captain, or maybe it’s part of being Kent Parson but both Gabriel’s mom and sister are smiling and shaking his hand. 

“Are you ready?” Parse asks. 

“Lead the way, Mr Parson,” says Gabriel’s mom and she might be blushing which is possibly the most embarrassing thing in an evening when there’d been a birthday montage for him on the jumbotron. 

“Please, it’s Kent,” says Parse. 

“Then, you must call me Berenice.”

“Mo-om,” says Gabriel but then he looks between Parse and his mother. “Wait, where are we going?” 

“You’ll see, kid,” says Parse, just as Beastly catches up and claps one giant hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. 

“Good, we’re all ready to go. Most of the boys are leaving their cars here. Madame Charbonneau, I’m Charles. How do you feel about drunk hockey players?

“Why does everyone know my mom?” asks Gabriel, faintly. 

♠

Kent feels pretty pleased. It’s always fun to celebrate a win and it’s definitely good team-building to celebrate their most effective rookie’s birthday. Henrikson’s been a bit of a disappointment but Charbo’s lighting it up and Kent— 

Well, Kent’s pretty fond of the kid. 

He takes his phone out of his pocket and reflexively checks for texts messages but there’s nothing. He could send a text. He thinks about it. _Hey, Zimms. Looking after my rookies. Hope you’re proud. Everything I learned about captaining, I learned from you._

“You did good, baby.”

Kent’s mom is here, too. She doesn’t get over to Vegas that often but she’s got no Monday classes this year and so she says she can cancel office hours, from time to time. 

“I didn’t exactly do too much, Mom.” He really didn’t. It was Beastly’s idea and there are pizzas and beer and Charbo’s mother and sister insisted on bringing the birthday cake and it’s actually kind of hilarious watching Charbo go between his mom and his sister, like he doesn’t know which fire to fight. His mom’s talking to Beastly, who’s really suave when he feels like it, and when there’s no baby puke on his clothes. Aurelie is talking to Henrikson and Dima, who’s got crutches and looks to be feeling no pain because he’s utterly dazzled by Charbo’s sister, who actually looks kind of like Charbo.

Charbo looks over at Kent, a little anguished, and Kent snorts and his mother knows exactly why he’s laughing. “Just wait till it’s your sisters and then see how sympathetic Gabriel is.” 

“They’re not allowed grow up, ever,” says Kent, emphatically. 

“Now that’s just creepy, baby.” His mom pats his shoulder. 

“Hey, Kent,” says Aurelie. “ _What_ is going on here?” She’s pointing at a photo frame on a side table and Kent figures his mom must have put it there. He laughs when he sees it. 

“Right, yeah. That’s from Christmas Day. Mom wanted to take a picture of me with the girls - they’re my baby twin sisters? But they refused to leave Gabriel’s lap. Cute picture, huh?”

“Yeah,” says Aurelie. “Cute picture.” She’s looking at him, kind of strangely, but who knows what the fuck his teammates have been saying to her.

“So,” he says. “Is it cake time?”

“Oh yeah, right. Go distract my brother while Mom and I go get it from the kitchen.” 

Kent shrugs and goes over to Charbo, who, like, lights up. “Parse,” he says. “Thank you so much. I didn’t —” He gestures and then blinks. “I’m just really grateful.”

“Careful, kid, your Canadian is showing.”

“My Canadian is always showing.”

“Don’t I know it?” mutters Kent but it’s hard not to smile when Charbo’s beaming. Kent thinks that the kid is genuinely surprised but, like, he’s _team_ and Kent will keep saying that until he gets it. He’s Kent’s team and Kent kind of understands that it’s pretty overwhelming, being an NHL player when, maybe, he didn’t expect to be but Kent was always going to be here. He’s trying to empathise but it’s never been his strong point because he was always going to be here (and so was Jack).

Charbo’s looking at him so intently and Kent is taken back to New Year’s Eve, and the balcony, and that whisper of lips against his cheek and he swallows, thickly. He’d have to be blind not to see that Charbo’s hot and, if Kent saw him in the right kind of club, he’d be on his fucking knees but Charbo’s a rookie, and he’s team, and he’s more important than a quick fuck. 

Fuck. Kent really doesn't need to think about Charbo like this. Ever since— Well, Kent has categories, and there are casual fucks, and there's Jack Zimmermann, and he's not sure there's anywhere in between. It's just as well Charbo's not his type, even if he's French Canadian and plays hockey like it's a battle. (He wonders, briefly, what Charbo's type is.)

“Anyway, way better to have a party here than at Bash’s or Beastly’s where we’d just be stepping on Lego blocks all fucking night. Or, fuck, can you imagine a party at Jeff’s?”

“You don’t have to, you know,” says Charbo, gently, like he’s humouring Kent.

“I don’t have to what?”

“Pretend that you don’t care.” Charbo turns so that he’s standing beside Kent and they’re shoulder to shoulder. “We all know you care, Cap.” 

The cake is brought out then, carried by Aurelie, with Gabriel’s mom smiling beside her, and everyone bellows out _Happy birthday_ like it’s a fight song, or a goal song, or a championship song and Charbo looks embarrassed and pleased and Kent figures they’ve done a good thing, in looking after their rookie.

♠

 _I’m not sure I can imagine waiting to go in the third round. Is that a bad thing to say?_ Kent doesn’t send the text. _Hope things are going okay, college boy. I miss you._ He sends that one. It’s honest, at least.

♠

_Gabriel Charbonneau’s twentieth birthday was spent in Vegas, scoring a goal, before going on to celebrate with his family and friends and he’s Rookie of the Month again. What a season this young man has had._

_“He’s got a good head on his shoulders,” says Aces GM, Joshua Giddings. “And a great foil for Bartos on the fourth line. We’ve had to do some moving around, with Zarubin back, but it’s a great problem for a GM to have - there’s really no such thing as too much depth in a hockey team.”_

_With Kent Parson leading the league in points and Rick Desmond’s impressive season in goal, no one would count against the Aces going all the way, if they can stay clear of injuries._


End file.
